Cranberry orange muffins

baking, breakfast, kids, snacks 1 Comment

This is based on a muffin recipe by Mark Bittman; I tweaked it to use some orange juice and — shocker — some Crasins. These are so good for breakfast, brunch, or even a snack! The Mickey Mouse muffin pan is not required, but certainly adds some cuteness. It does not, however, convince the Kiddo to eat any; your mileage may vary. Recipe made one dozen Mickey muffins.

Cranberry orange muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup milk, plus a little more if needed
  • 1 cup Crasins, fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries (no need to defrost first)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Mix dry ingredients together, then either mix egg through milk separately or in a well in the middle of the dry ingredients (my preferred method). Add in berries and gently fold everything together till it’s just barely incorporated; lumps are your friends
  3. Bake in a well greased or paper lined muffin pan for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean. Cool in a metal or glass pan pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack, longer for a silicone pan (wait for silicone to be cool to the touch for best results)

Pork chop rice bake

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This was inspired by Vintage Victuals’ Cheddar-Bacon-Ranch Chicken & Rice Bake. The flavors are so great, and this adaptation works perfectly with pork chops too. The original recipe calls for a can condensed cream soup which I didn’t have, so I made a substitute; you can do either depending on your tastes and time, obviously. I also cut the portions in half since it was just for the Yankee and me, but it can be easily doubled.

Pork chop rice bake

Ingredients

For the casserole:
    • 2 pork chops
    • 3/4 cup uncooked rice
    • 1 can cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, or one recipe cream soup substitute (see below)
    • 1/2 cup water
    • 1/2 milk
    • 1 packet ranch seasoning mix
    • Salt and pepper — about 1/2 tsp each
    • 1 diced red pepper, optional
    • 1 cup mozzarella cheese
For the condensed soup substitute (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

First method:
    1. Preheat oven to 350F and mix together rice, soup, water, milk, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper and red pepper. Pour into an 8″ or 9″ casserole dish and lay pork chops on top. Salt and pepper pork chops, then cover dish tightly with foil. Bake for 45 minutes; remove foil and stir rice mixture, then top dish with mozzarella cheese; cover again and return to oven for another 15-20 minutes or until internal temp of pork measures 165F
Second method:
    1. Preheat oven to 350F and mix together rice, soup, water, milk, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper and red pepper. Pour into an 8″ or 9″ casserole dish cover dish tightly with foil before placing in oven. Bake for 45 minutes; when 15 minutes remain on the timer salt and pepper the pork chops and start browning them over medium heat in a heavy skillet. Cook for 4-6 minutes per side till you get some nice color. When the timer beeps for your rice, remove casserole from the oven and stir mixture, then lay pork chops on top. Sprinkle over mozzarella cheese; cover again and return to oven for another 15-20 minutes or until internal temp of pork measures 165F
To make the condensed soup substitute (if not using canned soup)
  1. Melt bacon drippings or butter in a saucepan or skillet till foam subsides; add in flour and whisk, cooking for 1-2 minutes. Still whisking, add in chicken broth and milk and cook till thickened; add salt and pepper

Notes

You have a couple choices when it comes to actually cooking this; either bake it all together, or pan fry the pork chops to brown them up a bit, then add them to the rice mixture for the last 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cheeseburger macaroni

kids, lunch, supper 9 Comments

I found this recipe at KevinandAmanda.com and it is such a keeper! I’ve made it three times already, and it easily converts to a freezer meal — something I’ll be needing before too much longer with baby girl on the way. It’s got a little kick of spice to it without being overwhelming, and it’s just such a comfort food. It’s everything you wanted that supper-in-a-box to be. 😉

Cheeseburger macaroni

Ingredients

    • 1 lb lean hamburger meat
    • 1 pkg taco seasoning
    • 1 can Ro*tel
    • 2 cups beef broth or water
    • 1 cup elbow macaroni
For the sauce:
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 Tbsp. flour
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

  1. Brown the hamburger meat and drain off any grease, then stir in taco seasoning, Ro*tel, broth or water and macaroni. Bring to a boil then turn down to medium/low and cover; simmer for about 12 minutes or until macaroni is tender
  2. While it’s simmering, make the cheese sauce: in a saucepan melt the butter then whisk in the flour. Cook while whisking for about five minutes until the roux turns light brown, then keep whisking while you pour in the milk and bring to a boil. Keep whisking (see a trend?) until the mixture is smooth and thick, then remove from heat and stir in the cheddar cheese till it’s completely melted in. Add in the salt and pepper, then pour over the hamburger mixture and stir it all together. Supper is served!

Notes

To make this a freezer meal let the macaroni cook for only about six minutes, but complete other steps as written. Pour the whole thing into a casserole dish then cover with a layer of plastic wrap then a layer of foil; when it’s cooled off, pop it in the freezer. When you’re ready to heat it up, thaw it in the fridge overnight, then bake at 350F for 30 minutes or so until heated through.

The farm that converted me to a CSA

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Right now you’re thinking either, “Ooh! CSA!” or “CS…what?”

It’s Community Supported Agriculture. And I love it. What it means is that The Yankee and I essentially bought into a local farm, and in exchange we get a box of food every week. I wanted to do a CSA for years but I couldn’t hide from the truth of our eating habits: we’re too picky. Kale? Kohlrabi? What? I have lovely friends in Nashville who get all these lovely veggies every week and love it and say that opening the box every week is practically Christmas. They come up with beautiful menus and use every bit of their boxes (I’m especially looking at you, Erin and Kira).

And then I found Avalon Acres. And they had me at hello. Well, not so much “hello” but at “meat and eggs package.” Now you’re speaking my language!

Now all the eggs in my house are from local, free-range egg laying hens.  The chicken we eat was raised in a pasture without antibiotics, chemicals or preservatives. The heirloom pork is free range and amazingly tasty. Our beef is Piedmontese, which has the highest amount of good fats, and much lower bad fats and calories. It’s so tasty and so lean! When I brown up a pound of ground beef I almost never have any grease to drain off at all, but the flavor is incredible. And, like the rest of the meat, there are no hormones, artificial chemicals or preservatives. Check out this page for lots of great information.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I love this program. And because it’s not too late for you to join the spring and summer program! After that there’s even a fall and winter program with lots of yummy winter goods including homemade bread that is out of this world. If you’re not eating from here you’re missing out. Click here and check things out — pick a package, build your own package, pick and choose what sounds good. And let me know what you choose! I love hearing how creative people get with their shares from the farm.

Snow cones

drinks, kids Leave a comment

Somehow the stores are gearing up for back to school. Apparently fall is coming? (Someday?) But it’s still 110 degrees in the shade right now and I’m HOT. And so are the kids. Enter: snow cones!

There are a bunch of recipes floating around the interwebs for snow cone syrups so I just picked out the bits that sounded good and came up with this one.

Snow cones

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 packet Kool Aid (or whatever brand; Kool Aid does not know I exist)

Instructions

  1. Stir the sugar and water together in a saucepan and heat till boiling; boil for one minute and remove from heat, then stir in drink mix
  2. Let it cool completely then funnel into a bottle (a Wilton-type squeeze bottle or a water bottle with a sports top work brilliantly)

Sadly, I do not own a groovy Snoopy snow cone maker, but I do have one of these spiffy blenders that I used to grind ice into little snow cone cups I picked up at Target — mission accomplished! The kids had a great time getting to pour on the syrup themselves, and eating them on the back patio meant minimal cleanup. Go make some!